Question

Using your ICD-10-CM Alphabetic Index, look for the diagnosis code for a patient with a preoperative diagnosis of abdominal pain, right lower quadrant, and a postoperative diagnosis of uterine fibroids. Which of the following is the correct diagnosis code?

A.R10.9
B.R10.31
C.D26.9
D.D25.9

Answer 1

The correct ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for a patient with uterine fibroids is D25.9, which is the code for Leiomyoma of uterus, unspecified.

Step-by-step explanation:

The correct diagnosis code for a patient with a preoperative diagnosis of abdominal pain, right lower quadrant, and a postoperative diagnosis of uterine fibroids is D25.9. The ICD-10-CM code R10.31 stands for pain localized to the right lower quadrant of the abdomen, which would be appropriate if only considering the preoperative symptom. However, given the postoperative diagnosis of uterine fibroids, the code D25.9, which refers to Leiomyoma of uterus, unspecified, becomes the relevant diagnosis for reporting purposes.

Uterine fibroids are noncancerous growths of the uterus that often appear during childbearing years. The fact that the patient's abdominal pain was in the right lower quadrant could initially suggest conditions like appendicitis, but the final diagnosis of uterine fibroids guides the selection of the ICD-10-CM code.

It is important to code for the condition that is definitively diagnosed and treated, which, in this case, is uterine fibroids, represented by the code D25.9.